Hairstyles of a spiky and unorthodox nature have reportedly been banned in Iran because they imply devil-worship, while tattoos and other male bodily adornments are also being outlawed.

Jagged haircuts have become fashionable among all strata of Iran's youthful population in recent years, but have divided opinion and been deemed by the authorities as western and un-Islamic.

A district in Indonesia's Aceh has passed legislation banning unmarried men and women from riding together on motorbikes, a lawmaker said Monday, the latest new Islamic regulation in the conservative province.

Members of parliament in North Aceh district last week approved the regulation, which will come into effect in a year, said lawmaker Fauzan Hamzah, adding that authorities were making "efforts to implement sharia law fully".

Kenya's deputy president, William Ruto, has told worshippers at a church service in Nairobi that homosexuality had no place in the east African nation, reports said Monday.

Homophobia is on the rise across much of Africa and remains illegal in many countries, including Kenya where it was outlawed under British colonial legislation.

Ten pro-Kremlin Russian bikers, part of a larger group on a controversial World War II victory ride through Europe, reached the German border late Sunday, the Bavarian authorities said.

Having been turned back at the Polish and Lithuanian borders the members of the Night Wolves, a fiercely nationalistic motorcycle club backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, still hope to ride into the German capital Berlin on Saturday to celebrate the Soviet Union's role in the victory over Nazi Germany.

Christie's auction house is hoping to set new world records with a Picasso valued at $140 million and a Giacometti worth $130 million, as New York's spring auction season kicks off Tuesday.

Pablo Picasso's colorful "The Women of Algiers (Version 0)," depicting a scene from a harem, will be up for grabs when Christie's puts it on the auction block May 11.

Surrounded by ochre rubble, Pannakaji beds down on a mattress wedged between Buddha statues at Kathmandu's "Monkey Temple", hoping to deter looters from the quake-ravaged site where his ancestors have served as priests for 1,600 years.

The hilltop Swayambunath Temple complex, one of Nepal's oldest and most sacred religious monuments, was partly reduced to debris by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on April 25.

Tunisians have unfurled a national flag the size of 19 football pitches in a bid to set a Guinness world record and promote patriotism in the face of Islamist extremism.

Hundreds of people turned out for the event at Ong Jmel in the southern desert on Saturday, an AFP correspondent reported. 

Best-selling British crime writer Ruth Rendell, who wrote over 60 books in a career spanning five decades, died on Saturday at the age of 85, her publisher said.

Rendell suffered a stroke in January and had been in a critical condition in hospital.

Two years after fleeing from her home in Damascus, 22-year-old Rahaf Abdullah is working at a gleaming mall in Iraq's Kurdish region, selling sweets to local women who largely refuse to take such jobs.

While the mall job is a rite of passage for teenagers in America, in Iraq's conservative and relatively well-off Kurdish region the idea of women working — particularly in menial or retail jobs — is frowned upon. That has created opportunities for some of the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqis who have sought refuge here.

Alcohol has resurfaced as a hot-button issue in Algerian politics, with ultra-conservative Muslims angered by plans to liberalise sales in a country torn between respect for Islam and freedom of choice.

With deeply-conservative Salafists threatening to take to the streets, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal in mid-April blocked a circular issued by Commerce Minister Amara Benyounes liberalising the wholesale trade of alcohol.